Reliable and efficient gas turbines have been developed and are utilized in a myriad of industrial processes to drive process equipment (e.g., compressors, pumps, etc.). Gas turbines may also be utilized to drive generators to provide a local source of electricity. To drive the process equipment and/or the generators, gas turbines may receive and compress motive air in a compressor, combust the compressed motive air with fuel in a combustor, and expand the combusted motive air through a turbine. Operational efficiencies of the gas turbine may often be determined, at least in part, by one or more properties of the motive air delivered thereto. Accordingly, gas turbines may often be operated in conjunction with a motive air conditioning system (MACS) configured to control the one or more properties (e.g., temperature, humidity, acoustics, cleanliness, etc.) of the motive air.
Conventional MACS may often include a filtration system to filter the motive air, a ducting system to guide the motive air to the gas turbine, and a means for acoustic treatment to attenuate sound or sound waves generated in the MACS. While conventional MACS may be adequate in controlling the properties of the motive air, the design of the MACS may limit its application in process sites having constrained spaces (e.g., off-shore oil production sites). For example, conventional MACS often utilize crude, simple shaped passages for the ducting system that require relatively larger ducting structures with increased flow areas to limit fluid pressure losses. In addition to the foregoing, separate structural supports (e.g., beams) may often be require to reinforce the MACS and the relatively larger ducting thereof. The utilization of the structural supports may often require many on-site adjustments during installation and maintenance of the MACS, which may often lead to misalignment between the MACS and the gas turbine, thereby increasing fluid pressure losses and decreasing efficiencies.
What is needed, then, is an improved motive air conditioning system for a gas turbine.